Albert Von Tilzer, Tin Pan Alley Pioneer.

This month we look at the second of the greatest pair of song
writing brothers who pioneered much of the music of Tin Pan Alley in it's early
years; Albert Von Tilzer. Last month we presented older brother Harry's
biography and a view of some of his music. Between them they produced some
of the greatest music of the early twentieth century, much of which is still
well known. Both also contributed to the growth of the music publishing business
through the establishment of successful publishing houses. Both were born Gumm
(some accounts further say that their birth name was Gummblinsky which was shortened
to Gumm ) and when Brother Harry changed his name to "Von Tilzer"
in 1884, brother Albert followed suit. Though both wrote songs with almost every
major songwriter in Tin Pan Alley, they never wrote a song together (that I
can find) and their personal and business ties remained seemingly estranged
except for a very short period early in Albert's career when Harry helped him
get started by hiring him and publishing some of his earliest songs.

Albert was born Albert Gumm (or Gummblinsky) in Indianapolis,
Indiana on March 29, 1878. From a fairly large family, his five brothers all
ended up in the music business, each making their own unique mark in Tin
Pan Alley. Harry
preceded all the brothers into show business and it was Harry who felt the name
Gumm was simply too mundane and he chose his mother's maiden name, Tilzer and
in his words, "gussied" it up with a leading "Von" and thus
was born the name that would become one of Tin Pan Alley's greatest musical
family names. So successful was Harry that his brothers Albert, Jack, Julie
and Will all changed their name to Von Tilzer to capitalize on the Von Tilzer
magic. Albert was raised in Indianapolis and attended elementary school there.
When in high school, as with many children of those times, Albert abandoned
school in favor of helping the family make a living. At that time, his father
owned a shoe store and young Albert went to work there as a shoe salesman. By
this time, his older brother Harry had begun his own life in the entertainment
business and Albert began showing interest in music. He had a few lessons in
music harmony (it is unknown, from who or where) and taught himself to play
the piano by ear. Despite this rather thin musical education, Albert was hired
as music director of a vaudeville troupe.

By 1899, brother Harry had become a popular songwriter and was
a partner of Shapiro, Berstein and Von Tilzer and helped Albert land a job at
the company's Chicago office. By this time of course, Albert Gumm had also assumed
the Von Tilzer name his brother had concocted. Sometime in 1900, still unpublished
as a songwriter, Albert moved to New York where he sold shoes in a Brooklyn
store while still trying to learn how to compose and write songs. That same
year, his brother gave him a boost by publishing his first song, The Absent-Minded
Beggar Waltz which promptly went nowhere as far as popularity
goes. Undaunted, Albert continued to compose and in 1902,
he teamed up with a very well known lyricist, Arthur J. Lamb to publish his
first well known song, Tell Me That Beautiful Story.
Undoubtedly, brother Harry had much to do with the link to Lamb. Harry himself
had several hits with Lamb, as did the great early composer Charles K. Harris
( in depth biography)
. The song was published by brother Harry's publishing house. The cover artist
is unknown but is graced by an inset photo of Albert. That photo, with the caption,
"our trade mark," would become a hallmark on most of Von Tilzer's
published songs. This song is quite impressive as an early effort by Von Tilzer.
It is a classic tear-jerker (for which Lamb was one of the masters of lyric)
and has a wonderful story. But, more importantly, it has a melody that is not
only memorable, but touches the heart. The song overall is one of the best love
songs to come out of the period. Though still grounded in the "gay nineties"
period of song, it has a more forward looking melody and harmony. The song starts
with a nice introductory verse in common (4/4) time and then at the chorus,
moves into a wonderful waltz that gets to the heart of the "beautiful story,"
of love. Click the cover image or here to hear and see the Scorch
version of the song (printable using the Scorch plug-in) or
listen to the midi and see the Lyrics .

Not long after after the success of Tell Me That Beautiful
Story, Albert wrote the words and music to a song titled That's What
The Daisy Said and Harry's firm published it in 1903. That song was wildly
popular and set Albert off on his own career separate from Harry but still tied
to his family. In 1903, Albert formed his own publishing house, the York Music
Company with his brother Jack, who like all the Gumm brothers, had also changed
his name to Von Tilzer. The York publishing house then began what would be an
outpouring of hit songs from the pen of Albert in collaboration with some of
America's greatest lyricists.
In 1904, Albert published Teasing with lyrics by Cecil Mack and Lonesome
with Joe Rosey. The song was written for the stage production The School
Girl which opened at the Herald Square Theater in New York on October 24,
1904 and closed 120 performances later. The show included music from a number
of composers of the period, most of which were relatively unknown. The unattributed
cover carries a photo of Edna May, one of the cast but not a headliner. May
and her sister both starred in the show. May appeared in three musicals in New
York from 1901 to 1905. Then after an unusually long absence, she appeared again
in a 1927 play Babbling Brooks which closed after only three performances.
May moved to Switzerland and died there in 1948. At this point, Von Tilzer was
gaining popularity, but as evidenced by this music and his place in the show
as well as the performer, he has not yet attained superstardom in Tin Pan Alley,
but it will only be a few years before he does. The song is an upbeat one despite
the title and the subject matter. It reminds me a great deal of some of George
M. Cohan's songs, jaunty and melodic with a great deal of popular appeal. Click
the cover image or here to hear and see the Scorch
version of the song or listen to the midi
and see the Lyrics .

By 1905 Von Tilzer had become well established and had a number
of very popular hit songs to his credit. Among them were The Moon Has Eyes
On You, with Billy Johnson and A Picnic For Two, with Arthur Lamb.
By this time, Von Tilzer already had enough hits on his hands to publish a "dance
folio" with the melodies of many of his songs for home play. In this folio
we also have the opportunity to see and hear some of the very few piano only
works by Von Tilzer. His brother published a similar folio in 1901 (see our
full biography
and review of Harry Von Tilzer's music for more
information) and the "dance folio" had become a popular way for publishers
and songwriters to disseminate their melodies at a very affordable price. All
the music was published without lyrics so if a melody caught someone's ears,
the folios would often help increase sales of the individual items. Among the
fourteen titles included in this folio is a stunning march by Von Tilzer titled,
Bunker Hill. We saw in last month's issue
about brother Harry, that Harry's marches did not at all reach the same level
of quality as his ballads. However, Albert clearly was comfortable in this genre
for here he has created a march that is as entertaining melodically as any we've
heard in our many years of publishing songs. This march became so popular that
in 1906, Von Tilzer republished it with a set of lyrics and it reached a fairly
high level of popularity. The music is really rather simple as marches go. The
melody line is not complex and the accompaniment is also rather easy. Chances
are, they were simplified for the folio, as was often the case but regardless,
it is a pleasant experience that does not tax the mind or ears. Click the cover
image or here to hear and see the Scorch
version of the song (printable using the Scorch plug-in) or
listen to the midi there are no Lyrics for this work.

The years from 1905 to '08 resulted in a number of popular hits
for Albert and especially so when he teamed up with Jack Norworth ( Shine On
Harvest Moon) for a number of great songs. Included during this period were,
Honey Boy, a tribute to the minstrel George "Honey Boy" Evans, Good
Evening Caroline and Smarty, both with Norworth. It was however, their 1908
song that captured
the heart of the nation and established Von Tilzer as a superstar in the popular
music realm. Though neither had supposedly ever attended a baseball game, they
managed to create and publish a song that would forever be linked to the game,
Take Me Out To The Ball Game. As any American
knows, this song is in itself a national treasure. Sung at virtually every professional
baseball game in the US for almost 100 years, the tune and words are known by
almost every baseball fan in America. Though Von Tilzer wrote many, many other
songs of equal or greater musical value several of which continue to be heard
in the popular repertoire, none are probably as well known as this one. According
to many sources, though none give an authoritative source, Norworth and Von
Tilzer had never attended a baseball game until after their song had been published
and received so much attention. Now, a seventh inning stretch requirement, the
song and baseball could never be separated. The song may have overshadowed Von
Tilzer's output so thoroughly that at least one uninformed and obviously poorly
researched website has called them and the song a "one hit wonder."
Nothing could be further from the truth when speaking of either Von Tilzer or
Norworth. Click the cover image or here to hear and see the Scorch
version of the song or listen to the midi
or view the Lyrics for this work.

After
the 1908 rush of hits, Von Tilzer began working with other notable lyricists.
He had few hits that even came close to the prior ones and in 1910, he tried
to recapture the feeling by publishing a musical sequel to Take Me Out To The
Ball Game. That year he teamed up with Harry Breen to publish Back
To The Bleachers For Mine. The song carried a terrific baseball
oriented cover by an unknown artist and musically, the song inside shared a
number of attributes with the 1908 hit but like many sequels, missed the mark
and has been probably forgotten long since its publication. As with movie sequels,
though the title and subject matter are promising, the material inside is not
sufficiently different from the original and lacks any real exciting and new
ideas. Though certainly worthy and a well written song, as with most sequels,
it suffers by comparison to the original, a standard that still has not been
even approached to this day, nearly a century later. Click the cover image or
here to hear and see the Scorch
version of the song or listen to the
midi or view the Lyrics for this work.

Though Von Tilzer may have struck out with "Back To The Bleachers,"
1910 was certainly not a wash for this same year he published another of his
lasting hits with lyricist Junie Mc Cree, Put
Your Arms Around Me Honey, (Scorch format) an incredible song and yet
another that has stayed in the popular repertoire ever since publication. In
1912, Von Tilzer hooked up with Lew Brown, with whom he would write some of
his greatest hits. This collaboration was Brown's first song writing partnership
and he would go on to become one of America's greatest lyricists. Their first
two songs were tepid hits that rode on Von Tilzer's fame, but did not go too
far compared to many of his other works. They were; I'm The Lonesomest Gal
In Town and Kentucky Sue. The partnership between Brown
and Von Tilzer lasted several years and resulted in many hit songs and almost
all of Von Tilzer's songs from 1912 on featured Brown as lyricist. Soon after
the publication of Please Don't Take My Lovin' Man Away, also in 1912,
the two wrote a follow-up novelty song that picked up right where "Please
Don't" left off; Here Comes The Bride (The Girl Who
Stole My Loving Man Away). Unfortunately for the heroine of the
song, her earlier pleas were ignored and she found herself sitting in a church
while that man stealing twit walked down the aisle to marry her man. The song
does use the famed "here comes the bride" theme, the bridal chorus
from Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin to add that wedding sound and touch
to the song. The song has a bluesy sort of jazzy sound to it and actually sounds
much more like a song of the twenties rather than one of the early teens. Von
Tilzer's music in my opinion tended to always be more forward looking than many
of his contemporaries and in many respects, his music paved the way for many
of the harmonic and rhythmic changes that would come in a few years. Whereas
many composers of the era were grounded in tradition, Von Tilzer seemed to be
setting future standards. Click the cover image or here to hear and see the
Scorch version of the song
or listen to the midi or view the Lyrics for this work.

Lew Brown (1893 - 1958) wrote lyrics for some of the most popular songs of
the 1920s and 1930s as part of the song writing team of De Sylva, Brown, and
Henderson including The Best Things in Life are Free, I Used to Love You
But Its All Over Now, Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries, Youre the
Cream in My Coffee and Sunny Side Up. He was born Louis Brownstein
in Odessa, Russia on December 10, 1893. His family brought him to America in
1898 at the age of five and he attended De Witt Clinton High School in the Bronx,
New York. While still in his teens, he began writing parodies of popular songs
of the day, and eventually began writing original lyrics. For more about Brown,
see our composer biographies
page. Several of Brown and Von Tilzer's most important
songs will be featured as we continue this article. By 1915, Von Tilzer (and
his brother as well) was established as one of Tin Pan Alley's top composers.
Though his collaboration with Brown would produce the most hits, his popularity
and place as a composer allowed him to work with just about anyone he pleased.
Lyricists often submitted their work to famed composers in the hopes of making
a name for themselves or in the case of well known established lyricists, to
collaborate with the best. As a result, Von Tilzer continued to work with other
lyricists. Such was the case with this 1915 work with two of America's most
well known writers, Will Dillon and Sam M. Lewis, My Little
Girl. It was also at this time that Von Tilzer changed the name
of his publishing house from York Music to the Broadway Music Corporation and
this song is one of the first published under that name. Graced with a cover
by DeTakacs, the song is clever and creative in it's presentation and story.
The beginning starts as a letter with a "handwritten" date and salutation,
"Dear Mary." The lyrics are as though a beau was writing a letter
to his love whom he misses and takes the form of him writing a song to her.
I found the letter idea with a song inside a song a unique and creative approach.
Be sure to view the Scorch format song to see the way the song was printed.
It's a lovely tune as well. Click the cover image or here to hear and see the
Scorch version of the song
or listen to the midi or view the Lyrics for this work.

By the time the War came around, Tin Pan Alley rallied 'round the flag and
most composers pitched in to win the war with patriotic songs to inspire the
people at the home front. (For a look at the music of W.W.I, see our three part
series about War music beginning
with the first installment here. Next month (April,
2004, we will also feature an article about the use of music as wartime
propaganda ). Von tilzer wrote
several great war songs including Au Revoir But Not Good-Bye, Soldier Boy
but his greatest was a beautiful march song with Lew Brown, I
May Be Gone For A Long Long Time. Introduced by Grace La Rue
in Hitchy Koo, the song became one of the war's favorites. A beautifully wistful
cover by De Takacs adds to the sentimental theme of the song. Hitchy Koo was
first premiered at the Cohan and Harris Theater (built: 1914 closed: 1933) at
226 W. 42nd St. in New York on June 7, 1917. The show ran for over 220 performances
and was moved to two other theaters during that same year. Later variants of
the show, with different music and performers were staged in 1918, 1919 and
1920. Grace La Rue was one of Broadway's most popular and successful performers.
She starred in several versions of the Ziegfeld Follies and at least twelve
other major Broadway plays up till her last, Sweet Adeline in 1929. The
song is a very upbeat march song with the common "off to war" theme
that was so prevalent when America entered the war. Full of hope, love and patriotic
fervor and a terrific melody, it's no wonder this song was so popular. Click
the cover image or here to hear and see the Scorch
version of the song or listen to the midi
or view the Lyrics for this work.

After the war, America's next great challenge was the 1919 enactment of prohibition.
Tin Pan Alley jumped into this "war" with just as much frenzy as the
war to end all wars. Von Tilzer wrote at least two songs related to prohibition
but unlike most composer's songs that either were clearly against prohibition
or made light of alcoholism, Von Tilzer's songs were just as clearly in support
of prohibition. His first 1919 prohibition effort, with Edward Laska was The
Alcoholic Blues, a very bluesy song indeed that though it seems to extoll
the virtues of drink, really shows the down side and what it does to people.
We featured the song way back in our September 1999 feature (see link in the
list of Von Tilzer songs we've published). The second song, I
Never Knew I Had A Wonderful Wife (Until The Town Went Dry) is
a fun novelty song with a strong message that shows the value of family and
staying home and enjoying your spouse as opposed to out carousing and drinking.
The lyrics tell the story of a man who discovers the virtues of his wife after
prohibition. He finds he sees things he'd never seen before and realizes what
he had been missing. In many respects, the lyrics seem far too serious to be
considered a novelty song and I believe that Von Tilzer and Brown must have
both been advocates of prohibition. A great cover by E.E. Walton further illustrates
the message with a supplicant and thankful husband with his coy and humble wife.
What great stuff! Click the cover image or here to hear and see the Scorch
version of the song (printable using the Scorch player) or
listen to the midi or view the Lyrics for this work.

Also in 1919, Von Tilzer and Brown wrote one of their most creative and popular
novelty songs, one that would appear in two movies decades after its first appearance.
Betty Hutton sang it in Incendiary Blond in 1945 and Vivian
Blaine in 1952's Skirts Ahoy. That song is of course, Oh
By Jingo! Oh By Gee! This song is a rollicking and exciting "jungle"
style song that was performed by Charlotte Greenwood (on the cover) in the musical
production, Linger Longer Letty. The show opened at the Fulton Theater
on November 20, 1919 and closed 69 performances later. Greenwood was quite popular
and her career on Broadway spanned a 40 year period from her first appearance
in The Passing Show of 1912 to the 1950 production, Out Of This World.
This song has a fabulous melody and rhythm and a tongue twisting set of lyrics
that are a joy to hear and even better to sing. So make sure you have your scorch
player installed and enjoy see if you can sing along. I guarantee it will have
you laughing and the melody will stick with you, perhaps longer than you'd like.
Von Tilzer made liberal use of ornaments, staccato and harmonic progressions
to make this song a definite stand out and by many accounts, one of his best
songs. This song is another from the kind and generous donation of music to
ParlorSongs by the Sylvia English family. Click the cover image or here to hear
and see the Scorch version
of the song or listen to the midi
or view the Lyrics for this work.

By 1920, Von Tilzer became more involved in writing for Broadway. Although
he had written scores early on for The School Girl, 1904 and The Happiest
Night Of His Life, in 1911 other than these two, his involvement was mainly
incidental as the composer of a few songs. In 1920 he actually returned to writing
full scores for Broadway productions and continued to do with some success 'til
1927. In 1920 he wrote Honey Girl with Edward Clark and Neville Fleeson.
It premiered at the Cohan and Harris Theater on May 30, 1920 and in spite of
a paltry 32 performances, is considered his most important works. In 1922, he
teamed with Fleeson and Daniel Kusell to write The Gingham Girl, probably
his most successful stage work with a run of well over a year at the Earl Carroll
and Central Theaters. The following year, he wrote Adrienne which ran
for 235 performances and then in 1925 Three Doors and his final stage
work, Burlesque appeared in 1927.

As a part of the score for Honey Girl, two major hits appeared, the first an
all time favorite ballad that is still sung regularly, I'll Be With You In
Apple Blossom Time (see below
link) and another upbeat "jungle style" song called Chili
Bean, again with lyrics by Lew Brown and a wonderful "island"
cover by "RS." In the style more or less as Oh By Jingo, the
song has that mysterious beat and sound of a native song and is clearly somewhat
of a follow on or sequel to "Jingo." The cover certainly send some
mixed signals as to venue; the young lady is clearly Hawaiian in style and the
men seem to represent several cultures. Of course the song explains all that.
First, Chili Bean is the girl and she lives in the land of Eenie Meenie Minie
Mo. The men are profiteers cum suitors who flock to her from around the globe
to hear her um ta da played on her guitar. They also profess to love her ja
DA, um TA DA DA and want to marry her and have lots of eenie meenies who get
fed weenies. Got it? Easy as pie isn't it? Again, we have an absolute joy and
fun filled song with a catchy melody that was one of Von Tilzer's best. The
song was initially introduced by Aileen Stanley in the revue Silks and Satins
and was later recorded on Columbia by Frank Crummit and the Paul Biese Trio.
Click the cover image or here to hear and see the Scorch
version of the song (printable using the Scorch player) or
listen to the midi or view the Lyrics for this work.

Though Von Tilzer continued to write songs after 1920, the musical tastes of
America had
changed and he found his song style declining in popularity. Though he was still
able to write excellent songs, he abandoned Tin Pan Alley and like many composers
of the period after the introduction of sound in the movies, he moved to California
to write songs for the movies. More on that later. One non movie song that was
a hit was his 1921 effort with Lew Brown (one of their last together), Wait
Until You See My Madeline, another of the donations to us from
the Sylvia English collection. In some respects, the song is a return to earlier
style and tastes, perhaps Von Tilzer and Brown were reminiscing about the "good
old days." Done as a ballad in march style the song speaks of a man's search
for the perfect girl and just when he is about to give up, he finds the perfect
woman. It's a great song with a wonderful melody and some interesting harmonic
progressions. Click the cover image or here to hear and see the Scorch
version of the song (printable using the Scorch player) or
listen to the midi or view the Lyrics for this work.

Very few individual songs were written after this time, Von Tilzer had moved
on to movies and a few remaining stage shows. Von Tilzer's movie credits include
the 1933 film, Rainbow Over Broadway and the 1935 film, Here Comes
The Band. He retired sometime after 1935 and nothing came from his pen again
save one last song written around 1950, I'm Praying To Saint Christopher.
Albert Von Tilzer died in Los Angeles on October 1, 1956. Along with his brother
Harry, he is an inductee of the Songwriter's Hall Of Fame, a place deserved
for his tremendous contribution to America's music.

For biographical information about some of the collaborators and
lyricists who assisted Albert Von Tilzer with the songs we've featured this
month, see our composers biographies page.

Want to see and hear more Albert Von Tilzer songs? Explore our
site's resources. Over the years we've published several of Albert Von Tilzer's
songs. Here is a list of songs in addition to the songs featured in this article
that have been published on our site and the monthly issue of ParlorSongs where
they can be seen and heard.

That completes this month's feature and addition to our "In Search Of"
series. Unlike most prior year features, this one is complete on this page, there
is no second page. We hope you've enjoyed this article and the music and will
come back to explore more of our features and articles. See our resources
page for a complete bibliography of all other resources used to research this
and other articles in our series.

If you'd like to contribute an article to us at ParlorSongs, we'd love to have
your help and contribution. The "rules"
for submissions can be found here, we'd love to have submissions by any
of our readers, anytime and would enjoy having a "reader submission"
or "favorites" feature from time to time. Heck, get involved, help
us out and write a feature for us!